Post-Fordist transformation,the sustainability concept and social relations with nature: a case study of the Hamburg region

Following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the concept of sustainability in general and of urban sustainability in particular has become increasingly significant in the course of the 1990s. Even if the environmental problems of cities are far from being solved, one can interpret this development as a change in the relationship between society and nature on both a discursive and a material level. At the same time the transition from Fordism to post-Fordism has given rise to new forms of urban entrepreneurialism, with an absolute priority to economic competitiveness on the one hand and sharpened social conflicts on the other. Looking at the case of the Hamburg region, the article discusses the interaction of these processes. Contrary to the understanding of sustainability as a broadly accepted policy goal it conceptualizes sustainability as a terrain of conflict. As such, we will argue, the sustainability concept and the underlying change in social relations with nature contribute to containing the contradictions of capitalist societalization, which in the transition to post-Fordism have become more visible again. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中国生态工业园区发展模式研究

中国生态工业园区发展已逾10年。本文综述了国家生态工业示范园区的发展概况,总结了其发展特点和实践启示,构建了中国生态工业示范园区发展模式图,以期对1 500余家国家级和省级开发区的生态化发展提供借鉴。中国生态工业园区在发展过程中形成了"有标准可依,依标准建设,据标准考核,示范试点带动,建立长效机制"的发展路线图,由政府、市场和企业三个方面共同推进,从微观、产业集群、园区和社会四个层面建设实践。微观层面,以企业为主体,通过理念革新和技术进步,提高资源生产力和资源能源利用效率,减少废弃物产生量。产业集群层面,引入龙头企业,带动产业集群,构建"园中园"的发展模式,提升竞争力和环境管理。园区层面,完善基础设施,积极发展热电冷多联供,实施清洁能源和可再生能源替代,及再生水回用。宏观层面,实现基础设施和服务在更大区域内的延伸共享,加强社会分工,鼓励公众参与,提高公众的生态环保意识,实现经济、环境和社会和谐发展。     

黄土高原生态化油田建设

针对长庆油田在黄土高原较为脆弱的生态环境下,建设西部大庆过程中所面临的油田快速发展与生态保护之间的矛盾,运用工业生态学原理,总结探讨了长庆油田以企业文化、数字化油田、集约用地、研究配套实用勘探开发技术、体制机制改革、发展循环经济及管理创新等手段对建设生态化油田进行探索,实现企业发展、生态保护、企地和谐,通过油田的开发改善和促进黄土高原的生态文明。     

Four Decades of Plant Community Change in the Alpine Tundra of Southwest Yukon,Canada

Repeat measurements from long-term plots provide precise data for studying plant community change. In 2010, we visited a remote location in Yukon, Canada, where a detailed survey of alpine tundra communities was conducted in 1968. Plant community composition was resurveyed on the same four slopes using the same methods as the original study. Species richness and diversity increased significantly over the 42 years and non-metric multidimensional scaling indicated that community composition had also changed significantly. However, the direction and magnitude of change varied with aspect. Dominant species were not replaced or eliminated but, instead, declined in relative importance. Fine-scale changes in vegetation were evident from repeat photography and dendro-ecological analysis of erect shrubs, supporting the community-level analysis. The period of study corresponds to a mean annual temperature increase of 2°C, suggesting that climate warming has influenced these changes.     

用工业生态学理论优化工业生产体系

工业生态是人类社会发展之必然。在阐述工业生态学基本理论的基础上,以废物再资源化为指导思想,对秦皇岛市金海粮油豆油生产进行优化组合,以豆油生产为"优势种群"(核心环节),将其生产过程中产生的"废物"作为下一生产环节的原料,即"资源—产品—再生资源"或"资源—产品—消费—再资源化"的循环式流程,建立工业生态体系,取得生态、经济和社会等多种效益的共赢。     

生态建设与环境承载力研究

由于对生态建设的艰巨性和长期性、资金需求、阻力估计不足,生态建设过于口号化,我国生态建设存在诸多问题。从环境承载力的定义入手,分析了生态建设与环境承载力的关系,提出了当前生态建设应采取发展生态农业、生态工业、生态旅游、倡导绿色消费、加强污染综合治理等措施。     

河北省建设生态工业园的对策研究

生态工业园通过将循环经济与工业生态学理论相结合,有效实现能流物复。针对目前河北省未获得批准建设的国家生态工业示范园区的现状,首先分析了生态工业园的内涵与特征,进而介绍了我国生态工业园区建设的现状,并对河北省如何建设生态工业园区提出了对策建议。     

Factors Influencing Allelopathy and Toxicity in Prymnesium parvum1

Granéli, Edna and Paulo S. Salomon, 2010. Factors Influencing Allelopathy and Toxicity in Prymnesium parvum. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(1):108-120. Abstract: Some microalgae are able to kill or inhibit nutrient-competing microalgae, a process called allelopathy. Inhibiting or killing competitors enable these species to monopolize limiting resources, such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Prymnesium parvum is known to produce such allelopathic compounds, substances that seem identical to the ichthyotoxins identified from this species. Biotic and abiotic environmental factors influence not only growth rates but also toxin/allelopathic compounds production by P. parvum cells. Toxin production, as well as allelopathy, including grazer deterrence, increases dramatically in light, temperature, or nutrient stressed P. parvum cells. Correspondingly, toxicity and allelopathy may decrease, or cease completely, if cells are grown with high amounts of N and P in balanced proportions. However, even under nutrient (N and P) sufficient conditions, P. parvum is able to produce toxins/allelopathic compounds, with negative effects on other phytoplankton species or grazers, if cells densities of P. parvum are high relative to other species. This negative effect might shift the plankton community to more toxin resistant species. Filtrates from nutrient-deficient P. parvum cultures have almost the same strong negative effect on grazers and other phytoplankton species as when Prymnesium cells are grown together with the target organisms. Eutrophication, the increased input of N and P to aquatic ecosystems, besides increasing nutrient concentrations, is usually provoking unbalanced N:P condition for the optimal growth of phytoplankton, deviating from the Redfield ratio, i.e., the phytoplankton cellular nitrogen to phosphorus ratio, N:P = 16:1 (by atoms) or 7.2:1 (by weight). Eutrophication thus both enhances P. parvum growth and increases production of toxins and allelopathic compounds. Supplying N-deficient or P-deficient P. parvum cells with the deficient nutrient reduces toxicity to less than half within 24 h after additions. As P. parvum is mixotrophic, uptake of dissolved or particulate organic N (DON or PON) can also reduce toxicity and allelopathy in the same manner as addition of inorganic N to N-starved cells. In conclusion, P. parvum, by increasing its toxicity and allelopathic ability under poor environmental conditions, outcompetes the co-occurring phytoplankton species.     

Tracking Cholera in Coastal Regions Using Satellite Observations1

Jutla, Antarpreet S., Ali S. Akanda, and Shafiqul Islam, 2010. Tracking Cholera in Coastal Regions Using Satellite Observations. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(4): 651-662. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00448.x Abstract: Cholera remains a significant health threat across the globe. The pattern and magnitude of the seven global pandemics suggest that cholera outbreaks primarily originate in coastal regions and then spread inland through secondary means. Cholera bacteria show strong association with plankton abundance in coastal ecosystems. This review study investigates the relationship(s) between cholera incidence and coastal processes and explores utility of using remote sensing data to track coastal plankton blooms, using chlorophyll as a surrogate variable for plankton abundance, and subsequent cholera outbreaks. Most studies over the last several decades have primarily focused on the microbiological and epidemiological understanding of cholera outbreaks. Accurate identification and mechanistic understanding of large scale climatic, geophysical, and oceanic processes governing cholera-chlorophyll relationship is important for developing cholera prediction models. Development of a holistic understanding of these processes requires long and reliable chlorophyll datasets, which are beginning to be available through satellites. We have presented a schematic pathway and a modeling framework that relate cholera with various hydroclimatic and oceanic variables for understanding disease dynamics using the latest advances in remote sensing. Satellite data, with its unprecedented spatial and temporal coverage, have potentials to monitor coastal processes and track cholera outbreaks in endemic regions.     

Constructing an Interdisciplinary Flow Regime Recommendation1

Bartholow, John M., 2010. Constructing an Interdisciplinary Flow Regime Recommendation. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 1-15. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00461.x Abstract: It is generally agreed that river rehabilitation most often relies on restoring a more natural flow regime, but credibly defining the desired regime can be problematic. I combined four distinct methods to develop and refine month-by-month and event-based flow recommendations to protect and partially restore the ecological integrity of the Cache la Poudre River through Fort Collins, Colorado. A statistical hydrologic approach was used to summarize the river’s natural flow regime and set provisional monthly flow targets at levels that were historically exceeded 75% of the time. These preliminary monthly targets were supplemented using results from three Poudre-specific disciplinary studies. A substrate maintenance flow model was used to better define the high flows needed to flush accumulated sediment from the river’s channel and help sustain the riparian zone in this snowmelt-dominated river. A hydraulic/habitat model and a water temperature model were both used to better define the minimum flows necessary to maintain a thriving cool water fishery. The result is a range of recommended monthly flows and daily flow guidance illustrating the advantage of combining a wide range of available disciplinary information, supplemented by judgment based on ecological principles and a general understanding of river ecosystems, in a highly altered, working river.